Director Dennis Hopper (second from right) with cinematographer Haskel Wexler (third from right) during the making of the movie “Colors.”

Director Dennis Hopper (second from right) with cinematographer Haskel Wexler (third from right) during the making of the movie “Colors.”

Photo: Associated Press

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Cinematographer Haskell Wexler and director Francis Ford Coppola arrive at the premiere of “Tetro” in 2009.

Cinematographer Haskell Wexler and director Francis Ford Coppola arrive at the premiere of “Tetro” in 2009.

Photo: Frazer Harrison

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Filmmaker Haskell Wexler, who died Dec. 27, was behind the camera for some of the most important films of a turbulent era.

Filmmaker Haskell Wexler, who died Dec. 27, was behind the camera for some of the most important films of a turbulent era.

Photo: AP

Remembering cinematographer Haskell Wexler

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Haskell Wexler, who died at age 93 on Dec. 27, was named one of the 10 most influential cinematographers in history by the International Cinematographers Guild and was behind the camera for some of the most important films of a turbulent era. His eye helped translate to the screen “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “American Graffiti,” “The Conversation,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “Matewan” and many others, and he directed a dozen documentaries (see partial filmography, below). His pseudo-verite directorial effort, “Medium Cool,” challenged the boundaries of fact and fiction in film narrative.

Wexler worked in television on the likes of “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” before moving on to film, becoming known for his expert manipulation of shadow and contrast, perhaps as a compensation for his colorblindness.

“Medium Cool” was shot in the chaos of the actual 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Wexler applied his documentary experience to capturing history as it was being violently made, then stirred those moments into his fictional narrative about a newsman coming to see the big picture.

Among Wexler’s many awards were two Oscars, the American Society of Cinematographers Award, USA Lifetime Achievement Award (conferred in 1993) and the Society of Camera Operators Governors’ Award (2007).

Wexler briefly attended UC Berkeley and was a merchant marine during World War II; his ship was sunk by a U-boat.

Frequent collaborator John Sayles recounted in a published report last week about how the color-blind Wexler expected to die when the German vessel surfaced: “Instead, the captain lifted a small movie camera to document his kill, and Haskell remembered thinking, ‘I wonder if he’s shooting color or black and white?’”

Through the Wexler lens

A brief, and by no means complete, filmography of the late Haskell Wexler:

“The Living City” (1953; Oscar-nominated documentary — short subject)

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (1966; Oscar winner)

“In the Heat of the Night” (1967)

“The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968)

“Medium Cool” (1969; DGA nominee for Wexler’s direction)

“The Conversation” (1974)

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975; Oscar co-nominee)

“Bound for Glory” (1976; Oscar winner)

“Coming Home” (1978)

“Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang” (1979; PBS documentary directed by Saul Landau that won Emmy and Polk awards)

“Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip” (1982)

“Matewan” (1987; Oscar and ASC nominee, Independent Spirit winner)

“Colors” (1988)

“Blaze” (1989; Oscar nominee, ASC winner)

“Mulholland Falls” (1996)

“Occupy Los Angeles” (2012, at age 90)

Digital shooters

Speaking of cinematography, on this latest season of HBO’s “Project Greenlight,” contest-winning director Jason Mann made a very big deal of shooting on film instead of digital.

Note to Mann: The two-time defending Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, an almost certain nominee again this year for “The Revenant,” shoots on digital. So does Roger Deakins (“Sicario,” “Skyfall,” and 12 Oscar nominations).

By the way, Mann’s film, “The Leisure Class,” has only been reviewed by nine critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but it holds a 0 positive rating. That’s 0-for-4 for “Project Greenlight,” which continues to misfire on its actual green-lighted projects despite being great television.